1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronics cooling systems and more specifically it relates to a coolant recovery system for reducing coolant loss within thermal management systems. 
2. Description of the Related Art
Thermal management systems for electronic systems have been in use for years. Thermal management systems are used in various applications such as but not limited to semiconductor burn-in, server computers, personal computers and workstations, rack mount servers, diagnostics, and large telecommunications and computing facilities. Conventional thermal management systems utilized today are comprised of, for example, either air-cooled enclosures, or fluid-cooled cold plates. Upcoming technologies include refrigeration systems or other two-phase based technologies.
Modern electronic devices have increased thermal management requirements. Spray cooling is being adopted today as the most efficient option for thermally managing electronic systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,804 entitled High Heat Flux Evaporative Spray Cooling to Tilton et al. describes the earlier versions of spray cooling technology. U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,201 entitled Fluid Control Apparatus and Method for Spray Cooling to Tilton et al. also describes the usage of spray cooling technology to cool a printed circuit board. Spray cooling may be performed locally (i.e. where the chip is sprayed directly) or globally (i.e. where the chip and surrounding electronics/boards are also sprayed).
Various methods of spray cooling thermal management may be employed for the semiconductors and other electronic devices. For adequately low heat fluxes, it may be appropriate to cool the electronic devices through purely forced convection (i.e. no effective evaporation of the coolant occurs). For intermediate heat fluxes, it may be appropriate to utilize a combination of forced convection and phase change heat transfer (i.e. the latter method resulting in evaporation of the coolant). For the highest level of heat fluxes, it may be appropriate to optimize purely on phase change heat transfer. Expensive dielectric coolants are the most commonly utilized liquid coolants utilized in spray cooling thermal management systems today thereby making vapor recovery increasingly important. 
In most spray cooling applications, a certain volume of coolant is changed to vapor. It is important in a burn-in application to rapidly remove the burn-in boards to reduce costly equipment downtime. However, costly dielectric coolant is lost through vapor loss that increases the overall cost of spray cooling thermal management. Another example is the thermal management of servers employed in data centers where the processors or entire servers may need to be removed for maintenance. In any application of spray cooling thermal management, coolant vapor loss is a significant issue. Hence, there is a need for technology that will mitigate the volume of coolant loss in a spray cooling thermal management system.
While conventional thermal management systems may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for reducing coolant loss. Conventional spray cooling thermal management systems may have significant coolant vapor loss, which would increase the thermal management costs.
In these respects, the coolant recovery system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides a system primarily developed for the purpose of reducing coolant loss within thermal management systems. 